My Latest Experience With Panic Attacks

If you've been reading my posts on this blog you know that I suffered with panic attacks a few years ago. Fortunately I was able to find relief from that problem with a combination of both natural and pharmaceutical remedies.

Well guess what - that ugly snake came back out of his hole last week!!!

I won't go into detail about what caused my stress that led to the attack - let's just say I had a very stressful and unexpected family event happen. Initially when I received the phone call about the matter I was stressed - extremely stressed but I was handling it okay. It wasn't until the next day that the stress seemed to get worse and worse.

As I was putting on my make-up the attack began. I couldn't breathe - I began crying and my heart was racing. I was home alone - thank goodness I was at home - my phone rang during this tremendous feeling that the world was coming to an end for me (and of course I couldn't explain why).

It was my husband calling to check on me - he knew I had been upset the night before. Okay - again, I don't want to disclose a lot of things in this blog but the issue meant that a family member would be in court that morning. I wanted to be there also.

Mission accomplished, the panic attack was over almost as quickly as it had arrived. But I knew I was leaving my house and driving downtown. Well if you have panic attacks you can imagine the fear I had related to that. I mean I was in for a 20 - 30 minute drive plus time at the court room. I was a nervous wreck!

I made it downtown without any real drama - just the constant worry that I would need to stop the car to let an attack pass. By the way - I had a female friend with me - she was my support person.

Just as I thought, while waiting for court to begin I felt like I was going to have another attack. I hurriedly excused myself and ran to the bathroom. Once there I composed myself - no attack, just the fear of one.

But after court was over we needed to take care of some paperwork - that had to be done in another building. My companion kept reassuring me that court went well and everything was ok now.....she doesn't know about my panic attacks. I was not in the right frame of mind to explain to her that I wasn't worried about the legal matters - that it was the attacks that I feared.

Anyway - it seemed to take forever to get the paperwork taken care of and just as we left the office there I realized my fear - I had another panic attack! This one was much milder than the earlier one and I was able to handle it without drawing a lot of attention. As I said, my friend thought my worries were all related to the legal matters.

When I got home I phoned my doctor and set up an appointment. However, I missed that appointment - I totally forgot about it. By the next day I had almost completely recovered from the fear of the panic attacks. I talked to myself remembering that I was able to handle the attacks and I survived - even in a very public setting. I told myself that I was stronger than the attacks are. Perhaps they will not return!!!

I have not called to re-schedule my appointment and I hope I am not forced to; I am hoping that those panic attacks were purely situational and will not occur again. But I have promised myself that if I have another episode I will immediately make another appointment.


Debbie C. Allen
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